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Signal registration without a phone number now available in Android beta (but payment required!) (aboutsignal.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by hatingfedizen@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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Signal has started rolling out Signal Login, an optional registration method that allows users to create a Signal account without providing a phone number. The feature will be rolled out first on Android and will come to iOS later.

As we previously reported, Signal Login is not a free alternative registration method. Signal requires users who choose to register without a phone number to make a one-time payment. The price at launch is $2.99 / € 3.49, although this may vary by region and currency.

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[-] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Signal registration without a phone number now available in Android beta

Oh cool so it's more private now

(but payment required!)

Oh, so it's less private now, cool.

I already don't use it anymore so what do I care, back when they had SMS and Signal, people would download it "just for a protest" and delete it without disassociating their number, and then I'd go to message them but instead of defaulting to SMS because they deleted the app signal defaulted to "still has acct," but since they'd deleted the app the message gets delivered but only to like, the server I guess.

So now to text those 5 people I have to make Messenger my default, send an SMS, they don't respond immediately so I switch back to Signal as default, then they reply so I have to switch my default back to Messenger to reply, and so on. Sure, now that is probably fixed with them dropping SMS support, maybe, but I'm already using Delta Chat since it took them SIX FUCKING YEARS to solve that and I wasn't going to wait, so, sucks to suck I guess.

[-] refalo@programming.dev 1 points 2 weeks ago

SimpleX is more private anyways IMO

[-] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Just a heads up that the SimpleX founder, Evgeny Poberezkin, unfortunately has ties to right-wing groups.

Evgeny is a supporter of the far-right populist Reform UK party, and the Donald Trump administration. In 2024, he donated to the Reform UK party on behalf of SimpleX chat and boosted Tommy Robinson, a far-right, anti-Islam activist and convicted violent criminal, and his support of violent far-right riots in the UK.[

On X, Evgeny frequently boosts far-right politicians, COVID-19 conspiracy theories, climate change denial, and transphobic and otherwise bigoted rhetoric.

SimpleX has received a $1M donation from Jack Dorsey in the wake of changes to Telegram that promised to crack down on far-right extremism on the app.

Also @sonalder@lemmy.ml and @lonesomeCat@lemmy.ml

[-] someone@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

That's so unfortunate. At least SimpleX probably isn't a honeypot... :-/

[-] sonalder@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago

But is it more sustainable?

I love SimpleX I was really early on to test it and it improved over the years but running a messenger is heavy even if decentralized, especially when you have to do all the R&D because you work like nothing else.

[-] moopet@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

I used it for a while and even got some friends to use it but since they all used whatsapp already they drifted back to that.

this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2026
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